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Miggy & the Prince

Posted by
John Autin

There will be no shortage of talk about the size of the contract Detroit gave to Prince Fielder ... not to mention the size of the player himself. But for the moment, let's look at teams that have had two hitters as good as Fielder and Miguel Cabrera.

Among all MLB hitters over the past 3 seasons, Cabrera and Fielder rank #2 and #5(t) in OPS+:

29 teams made the postseason, or won the Pennant when there was no formal postseason (44%).

12 won the World Series (18%). Adding the 6 who won Pennants but had no WS, that means 18 of the 66 teams were MLB champions (27%) ... but none since 1973.

6 won the Pennant, but lost the WS.

6 won the Pennant, but had no WS.

4 won their division, but lost before the WS.

1 won the wild card and a playoff series, but lost in the LCS.

37 teams missed the postseason (56%).

Of course, there's no guarantee that the 2012 Tigers will join this company; Cabrera has reached the 150 OPS+ plateau in 5 of his 8 full seasons, Fielder 3 of 6. But their combined average over the past 3 seasons is over 160 OPS+. And the Tigers were a pretty good team before adding Fielder.

What do you think of Detroit's chances in the next few years to win their first championship since 1984?